Pumpkin Roll Bars

In celebration of the start of Fall, I made this cake. It’s a play on a pumpkin roll, but so much easier. It’s so moist and delicious. It can be eaten by itself, or with a dollop of fresh whipped cream.

I’ve kind of been obsessed with pumpkin lately, so there might be an influx of pumpkin desserts on here! It’s OK because everyone love a good, spicy, pumpkin dessert for fall, right?!

For the Cake:

6 T butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 (15 oz.) can pumpkin
1/4 cup water
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt


For the Cream Cheese Filling:

8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg


Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray a 9 x 13 inch baking pan with non-stick cooking spray. In a bowl, with an electric mixer on medium speed, beat butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar until smooth. Beat in 2 eggs, pumpkin, 1 teaspoon of vanilla and water until well blended.  In a separate bowl, mix flour, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, nutmeg, baking soda, baking powder, and salt; add the dry ingredients to the pumpkin/butter mixture and combine until well blended. Spread about 2/3 of the batter evenly into the prepared pan.

In a bowl, with an electric mixer on medium speed, beat cream cheese, 1 egg, 1/4 cup sugar, and ½ teaspoon of vanilla until smooth. Spread cream cheese mixture evenly over the pumpkin batter. Dollop the remaining pumpkin batter over the cream cheese batter and spread out as evenly as possible.  Use a butter knife to swirl together the cream cheese and top layer of pumpkin batter.  Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the center of the pumpkin batter springs back when touched. Cool completely in pan, then cut into bars and top with whipped cream if you desire. Enjoy!!

*From Six Sisters Stuff

Chicken Bacon Pasta

This is good, down home cookin right here! It’s the kind of dish that warms the soul and perfect for a Fall family dinner. I double the noodle/cream sauce recipe for my family of 5 and I recommend doing it even if you don’t have a family of 5 because then you can savor the leftovers the next day:) I also love adding eggs to cream sauces because it makes it oh so creamy. 

1/2 pound bacon, cooked and roughly chopped
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes (or less if you don't want the heat)
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 pound penne pasta
1/2 cup heavy cream (I just use milk)
1/4 cup cream cheese
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
2 whole eggs
1/4 tsp pepper
2 grilled chicken breast, sliced

Cook the pasta in boiling salted water according to package directions.

Place cream (or milk) and cream cheese in a small saucepan. Heat over low until cream cheese is melted, and whisk until smooth. Remove from heat. Add the parmesan cheese, eggs, garlic powder, red pepper flakes and pepper and whisk until blended. Don’t worry…the heat from the cream mixture will cook the eggs.

Drain pasta (reserving 1/2 cup of hot water) and return to pot. Immediately add the white sauce and toss to coat. Stir in the bacon, and add some reserved pasta water to loosen the sauce.  Top with grilled chicken and more parmesan. Enjoy!

*From Plain Chicken

Chocolate Raspberry Brownies

I got a request for these from Justin’s work. I’d never put raspberries with brownies, but they sure turned out delicious! I used my raspberry sauce from my Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake (recipe found here) and my Ultimate Brownies recipe to make the perfect combination! These are decadent and delicious!

For the Brownies:

In a bowl, combine and stir until thickened:
3/4 cup cocoa
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/3 cup melted butter
1/2 cup boiling water

Add in order listed:
2 cups sugar
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1/3 cup melted butter
1 tsp vanilla

Then add:
1 1/3 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt

Stir in a little less than 1 cup chocolate chips. (no more or brownies may fall apart when cut)
Pour into greased 9x13 inch cake pan. Bake 30-35 minutes in a 350 degree oven, or until brownies begin to pull away from sides or toothpick inserted comes out clean. Do not over bake. Cool in pan.

While the brownies are cooling make the raspberry sauce:

1 (10oz) package frozen raspberries
2 T sugar
3 t cornstarch
1/2 cup water

In a saucepan, combine raspberries, 2 T sugar, cornstarch and water. Bring to a boil, and continue boiling for 5 minutes or until sauce is thick. Strain sauce through a mesh strainer to remove seeds. Set aside to cool slightly.

While the raspberry sauce is cooling, make the ganache:

2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup heavy whipping cream

Combine the two ingredients and microwave them in 20 second intervals, stirring in between, until you have a creamy ganache.

To Assemble:

After the brownies have cooled completely, pour on warm chocolate ganache. Spread evenly over brownies. Next, top with raspberry sauce, pouring evenly over brownies. Take a butter knife and gently swirl the ganache and raspberry sauce together. Cut and enjoy!!

Greek Pasta Salad

Pasta salad just sounds so good sometimes when it’s so hot that you don’t want to cook dinner. Today was one of those days. It’s actually not that hot, but it was 3:00 and I just wanted dinner to be done. I love dinners that can be done WAY before dinner time. Especially on days where the kids are especially annoying:)

This dish is so fast and beyond delicious.

20 oz. tortellini (I use Buitoni)

1 15oz can medium olives, sliced

1/2 red onion, diced

1 cucumber, diced

1 tomato, diced

4 oz. feta cheese

3-4oz pepperoni, sliced

Cook tortellini according to package directions. Drain and run under cold water until cool. Mix with olives, onion, cucumber, tomato, feta cheese and pepperoni. Top with dressing (recipe to follow.)

Greek Dressing

1/3 cup plus 1T olive oil

1 t garlic powder

1 t dried oregano

1 t dried basil

1 t salt

1/4 t pepper

3/4 t onion powder

3/4 t spicy brown mustard

2 t sugar

1/2 cup red wine vinegar

Combine all ingredients into a jar or a container with a lid and shake. Pour over your favorite salad.

Asian Lettuce Wraps

I was craving lettuce wraps the other day and immediately remembered about after I had Reese and my friend, Emily, brought me dinner. As a 2 day old she developed a severe milk allergy and I had to immediately go off all dairy if I wanted to continue breast feeding. I thought for sure I was doomed because it was appalling at how many things had dairy in it. Emily saved me with these. They were so delicious and flavorful. Who says you can’t eat healthy AND have it be super good! I also loved how the meat wasn’t ground. Usually lettuce wraps call for ground turkey or chicken. I loved how this recipe used whole chicken breasts, diced small. It will sure to be one of your favorites!

Chicken: 3  tablespoons oil
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1  can water chestnut
1 can mushroom
1/2 onion, diced small
2-3 garlic cloves
4 -5 leaves butter head lettuce (or iceburg is fine too)

Special Sauce 1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
2 tablespoons ketchup
1 tablespoons lemon juice
1/8 teaspoons sesame oil
1 tablespoon hot mustard 
2 teaspoons water
1 -2 teaspoon red chile paste (depending on how spicy you like them)
2 garlic cloves, minced

 Stir Fry Sauce 2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon rice wine vinegar

  Make the special sauce by dissolving the sugar in water in a small bowl. Add soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, ketchup, lemon juice and sesame oil.  Mix well and refrigerate this sauce until you're ready to serve. Combine the hot water with the hot mustard and set this aside as well. Eventually add your desired measurement (depending on how spicy you want it) of mustard and garlic chili sauce to the special sauce mixture to pour over the wraps.

Bring oil to high heat in a wok or large frying pan. Saute chicken breasts for 4 to 5 minutes per side or done.  Remove chicken from the pan and cool.
3 Keep oil in the pan, keep hot. As chicken cools mince water chestnuts and mushrooms to about the size of small peas. Prepare the stir fry sauce by mixing the soy sauce, brown sugar, and rice vinegar together in a small bowl.

When chicken is cool, mince it as the mushrooms and water chestnuts are. With the pan still on high heat, add another tablespoon of vegetable oil. Add chicken, garlic, onions, water chestnuts and mushrooms to pan. Add stir fry sauce to pan, saute mixture a couple minutes then serve in lettuce leaves. Top with Special Sauce. ENJOY!!!

Sausage Pie

OK, so the title doesn’t sound THAT appealing, right? There’s just no good name for this dish! It is beyond delicious though. And you can make it for breakfast, lunch or dinner. The original recipe calls for ground beef, kind of making it a play on a cheeseburger, but sausage sounded SO much better. It’s sure to please adults and kids. Give it a try!

1 lb Jimmy Dean sausage

1 small onion, chopped

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1 cup milk

1/2 cup Bisquick mix

2 eggs

Seasoned salt to taste

 

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a 9 inch pie plate with non-stick cooking spray. Cook sausage and chopped onion in a skillet until sausage is no longer pink. Drain excess fat. Add seasoned salt if you want, but I find that there's enough salt in the sausage and cheese to suffice. Spread into pie plate. Sprinkle cheese over top of sausage.

In a small bowl, whisk together milk, eggs and Bisquick. Batter with be thin. Make sure to get out as many clumps as you can. Pour over meat mixture.

Bake for 25 minutes or until knife comes out clean. This make just enough for our family of 5. Enjoy!

Scotcheroo Bars

These are so easy and are sure to please anyone eating them. They are a quick dessert when you don’t have a lot of time. You can’t eat just one!!

1 cup sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1 1/2 cups peanut butter, creamy or chunky
6 cups rice krispies
1 cup milk chocolate chips
1 cup butterscotch chips

In a heavy saucepan add the sugar and corn syrup together.  Cook together until it starts to boil, stirring constantly.  Then remove from heat and stir in the peanut butter until it has melted and blended in well.  Have the six cups of rice krispies in a big mixing bowl.  Pour the warm peanut butter mixture over the cereal. Fold together until all of the rice krispies are covered. Press into a 9x13 inch pan that has been sprayed lightly with non stick cooking spray.
In a microwave safe bowl melt the milk chocolate chips and butterscotch chips together. (microwave for about 20 seconds, stir and then microwave for another 20 seconds) Stir until well blended and spread over the rice krispie mixture.  Let set up for about an hour and then ENJOY!
*From Six Sister Stuff